The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 3 March 1998
by Larry McMurtry
Opening on a highly atmospheric note, this novel guides the reader back in time, to that moment, as a senior in high school, when the entire world seemed open to enticing possibilities. In the short span of a year, though, McMurtry's characters do a lot of growing up exposed to the undercurrents of human feeling in a small Texas town. At first the book is as picturesque as an Edward Hopper painting. Then it evolves into an emotional, graphic, energetic work. The book is nostalgic, but one may not pine for some of these characters. Sonny Crawford is a wandering soul, Jacy Farrow a confused romantic, and the coach a mean-spirited misogynist. This reader found the story evocative of his own past, and more, involving a world of confused and intimate human interactions.
Also by McMurtry: [Texasville] [Lonesome Dove]